Friday, March 5, 2010

You are crazy!

I get this a lot. This time it was from the mouth of one of my chemotherapy nurses. Thursday was the monthly ‘flushing’ of my port, and she escorted me back to one of her patients. On the way, she said, “he is reading your book, and wants to meet you”. She introduced me to a man who was being treated for Leukemia, and was also a long distance runner. Her final words as she left us alone, was, “you are crazy!” I took it as a compliment and turned to my new brother, and we shared together in ways that only chemotherapy patients can understand. It was my oncologist who shared my book with him. He was planning on running a marathon in January, but his diagnosis changed all his plans. It was privileged moment to minister hope to someone, who was in the middle of his treatments and re-planning his life. If I was a perfectly healthy pastor, asking to minister to the patients undergoing chemotherapy, I doubt if they would allow it. However, because I am a “jar of clay”, and fellow sufferer, albeit ‘crazy’, the nurses are very comfortable escorting me around to patients in need of some ‘crazy’ hope. I have an open door of ministry to all the doctors, nursing staff and patients, and as I sat in my car about to leave, I wept in silent praise. This morning my scheduled reading was this:

2 Corinthians 4: 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us.